Residents fuming over state of 'mud bath' Sheffield park after music festival

Around 8,000 revellers poured into Ponderosa Park in Netherthorpe on Saturday for Fire in the Park, an urban music festival featuring performances from Giggs, Charlie Sloth and Jay1.

Organisers described the event as a ‘phenomenal’ success despite the heavy rain which forced them to cancel the Bass in the Park festival planned for the following day.

But shocking photos shared online show the extent of damage to the park, with vehicles having churned up the turf and tree branches scattered over the ground.

Councillors have told organisers to put right the damage urgently so families can enjoy the park, and said they are working with them to ensure this happens.

Ian Baird, event manager for the festival, has vowed to ‘put the park back to how it was.’

A number of Star readers have since taken to Facebook to have their say on the matter.

One reader said: “It was a total disaster to see the state of the park.”

Lizzie Peters made the point that: “Tramlines ran at least one year in the pouring rain and the park was fine afterwards so yes this could have been avoided with better planning and a bit of thought. It's a real shame.”

Bob Higgins posted: “That part of the Ponderosa has rain wash off from three directions. It's always wet and muddy anyway.”

And Nick Simon added: “And the organisers of the event will be putting it right.”

Event organiser Mr Baird said: “We have contractors looking at it and it will happen as soon as the weather allows.

“It’s a couple of days works but the seeding may continue to take place up to next spring.

“We went into the event with bad weather but good forecasts and built the site as planned. On Friday, when we had a walk around everyone was very content but since then we’ve had horrifically severe weather which was unprecedented and unforeseeable.”